a. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to devices for separating nuts from the accompanying leaves and other debris picked up from the ground in an orchard by a nut harvester.
b. Description of the Prior Art
The following patents illustrative of the prior art are known to applicant:
Larsh U.S. Pat. No. 2,870,594; PA1 Anderson et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,105,344; PA1 Gustafson U.S. Pat. No. 3,107,475; PA1 Ramacher U.S. Pat. No. 3,182,437; PA1 Overstreet et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,889; PA1 Patterson U.S. Pat. No. 3,520,123; PA1 Brumbaugh et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,591,948; PA1 Sides U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,677; PA1 Ramacher U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,657; PA1 Ramacher U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,072; PA1 Ramacher U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,222.
Prior art devices, including most nut harvester-separators commercially available, are often forced to resort to multiple fans to provide sufficient power to induce an updraft capable of lifting a mixture of nuts and heavy trash, such as that encountered in pecan orchards, from a screen conveyor and of separating and removing the lighter and more aerodynamically responsive trash from the nuts which remain on the conveyor and are carried to a discharge.
While such devices have performed reasonably well for many years, most have suffered from a shortcoming inherent in over-separating in order to yield nuts uncontaminated by any trash remnants. This shortcoming is the concomitant loss of an undesirable percentage of valuable nut product which is returned to the orchard floor along with the trash.